


I Know

by RedHeadFireBred



Series: Klance Drabbles [1]
Category: Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars Original Trilogy, Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Adopted Keith (Voltron), Alternate Universe - Star Wars Fusion, Bisexual Lance (Voltron), But for like a second, Cute, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Fluff, Follows the Original Series, Gender-Neutral Pronouns for Pidge | Katie Holt, Han and Leia Moments, Insecure Lance (Voltron), Keith & Shiro (Voltron) are Siblings, Light Angst, Litterally for the kiss luke and leia did, Long Haired Keith, M/M, Matt Holt is a Good Sibling, Maybe - Freeform, Minor Keith/Shiro (Voltron), OOC Keith?, OOC Lance?, POV Lance (Voltron), Pidge and Matt are Droids, Pidge is a troll, Pining Keith (Voltron), Pining Lance (Voltron), Prince Keith (Voltron), Rebels, Space Battles, Star Wars AU, The Marmora are Jedi, but like for a second, hunk is the best, matt is a troll
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-08-28
Updated: 2018-08-28
Packaged: 2019-07-03 12:16:28
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 16,687
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15818703
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/RedHeadFireBred/pseuds/RedHeadFireBred
Summary: Lance aimed his gun towards the control room as he and Hunk ran down the cell block. No shots came out of the smoke and towards the duo as they ran into Shiro and, who Lance assumed was, the Prince. “Can’t go that way!” he said quickly, not taking his eyes off the control room.“Looks like you’ve cut off our only escape route,” the Prince seemed to growl.Lance wasn’t in the mood. Already that day he’d had to deal with the crazy farm boy and old Galran who believed in witchcraft and fairytales. Now, he and Hunk had been roped into getting trapped in the Galra Empire super weapon, the Extinction Moon, and rescuing the Prince of Altea after the planet had been destroyed. To put it simply, Lance was feeling stressed.Usually he was better behaved around royalty, especially someone he was helping save, but Lance was at his breaking point. He finally tore his eyes away from the control room and turned around slowly to face the Prince as he said, “Maybe you’d like it back in your cell, Your Highness?”Then, Lance found himself staring at one of the most beautiful people he’d ever seen.





	I Know

The day started off normally enough. Lance found himself in The Garrison on the planet Krell, a run down bar that most bounty hunters and smugglers frequented. He decided to try his luck in a few rounds of poker, hoping to get some more money to try and pay off his debt. Already he was reaching the end of Sendak’s patience. He _needed_ the money, or else the Hutt lord would demand everything Lance had, and probably take more. Like his ship.

Sometime around the fifth game, Hunk, Lance’s co-pilot and best friend, had grown bored and went off to the bar. Lance played another round and happily won some more money before Hunk returned to his side. “Hey, there’s these two guys that are looking for a quick ride somewhere,” he began. “I told them you’d talk to them.”

Lance sighed. “Hunk, I don’t have time to fly anyone around. I have to focus on getting this debt off my shoulders before it’s too late.”

“Oh,” Hunk mumbled with a nod. “Right. I just thought, ‘cause, Blue’s the fastest ship around, and they needed to get somewhere fast. And you’re the best pilot here, too, so you’re they’re only chance at getting where they need to get super fast-”

“Fine.” Lance took a deep breath. Hunk certainly knew how to get him to do what he wanted. “Fine, just. Lead me to them. But no promises!”

That would, evidently, change. There was an old Galran who wore tan robes and a long brown cape, the hood over his head, most likely to draw little attention. Nobody messed with Galrans, not after the Empire took over, but there would still be those that would try to cause some trouble, especially in The Garrison. Next to him was a tall and muscular man that looked no older than his early twenties. His hair was black, short in the back, but he had a few spiky bangs that rested on his forehead. He was also dressed in similar tan robes, but without the brown cape. Lance was also pretty sure he was wearing eyeliner.

“I’m Lance McClain,” he greeted, sitting down after Hunk across from the two. “Captain of the _Blue Lion._ Hunk told me you guys are looking to get somewhere fast.”

The Galran nodded. “Yes. Altea.” His voice was deep and rough, and Lance was slightly unnerved by his yellow eyes - he couldn’t read them very well. “If it’s a fast ship.”

Lance blanched. “ _Fast ship?_   You’ve never heard of the _Blue Lion?”_

The Galran raised an eyebrow. “Should I have?”

“It’s the ship that made the Kessel run in less than twelve parsecs,” Lance explained. When that generated no response from either man, Lance figured they didn’t know what he was talking about. “I’ve outrun Empire ships. Not the small fighters, I’m talking about the huge cruisers. She’ll be fast enough for ya, old man.” The Galran still didn’t move, only staring at Lance. “What’s the cargo?”

“Myself, the boy, two droids, and no questions asked.”

Being told not to ask questions only made Lance _want_ to ask questions. Already different scenarios were coming to mind: these two were on the run, they were secret agents trying to deliver something to Altea(although the fact that they’d go to there made no sense to Lance: he’d been to Altea before, had even had the pleasure of running into the Princess, but Altea was peaceful, had no weapons or armies, so that idea was a no-go), or the man was a secret royal, going there to marry the Princess(which Lance didn’t really like, ‘cause he liked the Princess, even if she probably still didn’t forgive him for the whole fake-capturing thing, though it _did_ get her out of her arranged marriage).

“Unfortunately for you, I’m a curious guy,” Lance said, leaning back and crossing his arms. He could feel Hunk sigh at his side, probably sensing Lance was going to do something stupid. “So it’s gonna cost you extra. Ten thousand, all in advance.”

“Ten _thousand?!”_  the man exclaimed. “We could almost buy our own ship for that!”

“But who’s gonna fly it?” Lance asked. He quickly looked up and down the man’s body, already sensing that he was _not_ a secret royal, no matter how gorgeous he was, but instead a farm boy. “You?”

“I could,” the man said, “I’m not a bad pilot myself. Kolivan, we don’t have to sit here and…”

The Galran - Kolivan - put a hand on the man’s shoulder, stopping him. He looked back up at Lance, giving him an amused look. “We can give you two thousand now, plus fifteen when we reach Altea.”

Lance’s eyes widened. “Seventeen?” he asked, just to make sure he heard right. Kolivan nodded. Lance swallowed, then nodded. “Alright, you guys have yourselves a ship. Docking bay ninety four.”

“Ninety four,” Kolivan repeated with a nod.

Lance glanced over their shoulders to see Galran troops talking with the wildly gesturing bartender. After he pointed their way, Lance straightened. “Looks like you two have some attracted some trouble,” he said. After glancing at the troops, the two quickly got up and walked off. Lance and Hunk stayed at the table, giving the passing troops a quick glance before they walked away. “Seventeen thousand!” Lance exclaimed, clapping his hands once and turning to grin at Hunk, who was looking both pleased and slightly smug. “Those two must really be desperate. This could really save my neck.” Lance began to stand. “Get back to the ship and get her ready.”

 

~*~

 

As Shiro pulled at Hunk’s binders, finally unlocking them, Lance let out a dramatic sigh. “This is _not_ gonna work,” he mumbled, almost to himself.

He and Shiro were dressed as Galran troops, pretending to be escorting Hunk to the cell block the Prince of Altea was in. After being pulled into the _Extinction Moon_ upon arriving at a nonexistent Altea, Lance was perfectly fine waiting in the control room above the hangar the _Blue Lion_ was in until Kolivan turned off the tractor beam.

Until Pidge had hacked into the system a little too far.

“Oh my fuck,” they mumbled once. “He’s here. He’s actually here.”

“What?” Shiro had asked, looking to the other droid, Matt. “What do they mean?”

Matt shrugged. “No idea. Just that he’s here, I guess.”

“Who?”

“Oh, just Prince Keith.”

Shiro had blanched. Apparently this was the same Prince that had uploaded some sort of secret plans into Pidge and sent a message to Kolivan about getting them to Altea? Whatever, what Lance couldn’t get past was that King Alfor had more than one kid. And that Allura had never mentioned having a brother while in Lance’s care that one time he helped her out of her arranged marriage. “Prince?” he asked, walking closer to the small group.

“Find out where he is,” Shiro demanded.

“Wait a second - _Prince?!_  What’s going on?” Lance asked.

“He was the one in the message, these are his droids!” Shiro said happily. “Pidge, can you find out where he is?”

They nodded once, then went back to whatever they were doing. After a second, they said, “Detention level AA23. And, Shiro? He’s scheduled to be terminated.”

Shiro was silent for a moment, looking down at his hands that were covered in Galra troop armor. “We’ve got to do something,” he declared.

Which Lance had been against in the beginning. All he wanted to do was wait until Kolivan got back and blast out of there before anything else could go wrong. Shiro eventually got him to go along with rescuing the Prince by suggesting there would be a reward. And, okay, Lance isn’t a greedy guy, and he usually doesn’t do things because of a promised reward, but he’s been in debt to Sendak for too long. So, he put on the helmet, locked Hunk in some binders, and walked with Shiro towards the detention level the Prince was in.

Which lead to them being in the elevator. Shiro released Hunk’s wrists, with the binders loosely around them. “Why didn’t you say so before?” he whisper-yelled.

“I _did_ say so before!” Lance shot back. The two quieted as the elevator doors opened, revealing the detention level control room. There were only five guards and the guy Lance assumed was the leader, who eyed them warily.

“Where are you taking this...thing?” he asked.

Lance felt Hunk shiver next to him and immediately wanted to go after the guy for saying that. Instead, he stayed silent as Shiro answered, “Prisoner transfer.”

The leader-guy raised an eyebrow. “I wasn’t notified. I’ll have to clear it.” With a wave of his hand, two guards started forward, their guns raised.

Hunk waited until they were right in front of him to quickly slip off the binders and throw the guards away from him. “Look out, he’s loose!” Lance yelled, raising his gun and pretending to shoot towards Hunk. Instead, he took care of a few cameras. Hunk grabbed one of the guard’s guns that was laying on the ground, helping Lance and Shiro to shoot the cameras. Smoke began to fill the room, and once most of the cameras were dealt with, Lance fired at the remaining guards and leader-guy. He quickly ran to the controls, finding a screen that had a list of prisoners.

“Quick, help me find the cell this Prince of yours is in,” he commanded. Shiro ran over to his side, but before he could help, Lance found it. “Here he is: 21-87. You go get him, I’ll hold them here.”

Shiro ran down the cell block. Lance took off the helmet and went over to a strange looking microphone that had a flashing red button next to it. He pressed it and began to talk into the microphone. “Uh, everything’s okay here, situation normal,” he quickly said.

“What happened?” someone else asked.

“We, uh, had a slight system malfunction, but everything is okay here, now...how’re you?” Lance bit his lip and pressed a fist to his forehead, feeling his heart pound. He couldn’t do this, he needed to end the conversation. Now.

“Well, we’re sending a squad up,” the person on the other end said.

“Uh, negative, negative!” Lance quickly said. “We also had a, uh, a gas leak, and it’s very dangerous!”

The other end was silent for a moment. “Who is this?” they finally asked. “What’s your operating number?”

“Uh…” Lance grabbed his gun and shot the microphone, then the control panel it was on. “That was an awful conversation, anyway. Shiro, we’re gonna have company!”

After maybe a full minute of waiting, one of the elevators finally made a hissing noise. “Uh, Lance?” Hunk asked, holding tighter to his gun. He was standing right next to it.

“Get behind me, get behind me!” Lance yelled, raising his gun and aiming at the elevator. Hunk ran behind him, then raised his own gun. Once the door had been blown off, the two began firing, managing to get a few troops before too much smoke filled the control room, pushing them back.

Lance aimed his gun towards the control room as he and Hunk ran down the cell block. No shots came out of the smoke and towards the duo as they ran into Shiro and, who Lance assumed was, the Prince. “Can’t go that way!” he said quickly, not taking his eyes off the control room.

“Looks like you’ve cut off our only escape route,” the Prince seemed to growl.

Lance wasn’t in the mood. Already that day he’d had to deal with the crazy farm boy and old Galran who believed in witchcraft and fairytales. Now, he and Hunk had been roped into getting trapped in the Galra Empire super weapon, the _Extinction Moon,_ and rescuing the Prince of Altea after the planet had been destroyed. To put it simply, Lance was feeling stressed.

Usually he was better behaved around royalty, especially someone he was helping save, but Lance was at his breaking point. He finally tore his eyes away from the control room and turned around slowly to face the Prince as he said, “Maybe you’d like it back in your cell, _Your Highness?”_

Then, Lance found himself staring at one of the most beautiful people he’d ever seen. His skin was light, eyes big and a beautiful violet color. His hair was long and black, pulled up into two flat buns that rested over his ears. A few small strands in the back had fallen loose, resting on his neck. He was wearing white robes: the neck came up and bunched just under his jaw, the sleeves were long, he had on a thin belt, and the bottoms only reached his ankles, revealing light gray boots. All in all, it looked like a dress, but at the same time the Prince was rocking the look. Lance was about to wonder why he was wearing that when a shot went just over his head, reminding him of the danger just behind him.

Lance quickly pressed himself against the right wall, Hunk following him. Shiro and the Prince went across from them. Lance, Shiro and Hunk began to fire at the troops, dodging fire at the same time. Shiro quickly called Matt on the comlink, shouting for a moment, before putting it away. “There isn’t any other way out!” he called.

Lance huffed, firing at the troops again before pressing back against the wall. There was so much smoke in the control room he could only hope he was hitting anything. He quickly glanced at the Prince, who was pressed against the wall, looking angry. Lance almost thought it was cute.

“This is _some_ rescue!” the Prince yelled. He looked at Lance, glaring. “If you had a plan for getting in here, wouldn’t you have a plan for getting out?!”

“ _He’s_ the brains, Sweetheart!” Lance yelled back, nodding at Shiro as he started to fire again.

“I-!” Shiro began, cut off when the Prince grabbed his gun out of his hands. He shot the wall behind Hunk, who yelped and jumped away.

“What the hell are you doing?!” Lance yelled.

“ _Somebody’s_ got to save our skins!” the Prince yelled back, raising the gun and shooting twice as he ran to the other wall. “Into the garbage shoot!” he yelled, throwing the gun back to Shiro.

Lance groaned as he went down. “Hunk, get in there!” he yelled, continuing to fire.

Hunk slowly scooted back towards the hole in the wall. “Urg, that doesn’t smell good!” he groaned, plugging his nose. “That’s so disgusting!”

“Get in there, I don’t care what you smell!” Lance yelled again, reaching backwards with his foot to kick Hunk in the back, pushing his friend down the shoot. He turned to Shiro, who was still firing as well. “Wonderful boy! Either I’m gonna kill him, or I’m beginning to like him!”

Shiro appeared to roll his eyes, quickly running to the other side to get into the shoot. Lance fired twice more, then followed the other man down.

 

~*~

 

Lance sighed in relief once he had taken the Galra troop armor off. He and Shiro had finally changed out of it once they’d escaped the garbage compactor the shoot had lead to. He decided to keep the utility belt, just like Shiro, incase he’d need anything from it. As he finished smoothing down his clothes, he looked to the Prince, who was adjusting the buns his hair had been pulled into. It was kind of weird to see another man with hair that long, but at the same time, the Prince didn’t look that bad with it.

“Now, if we can just avoid anymore royalty advice,” Lance began, throwing the last of the armor to the floor. “We might just get out of here.”

The Prince rolled his eyes, and Shiro gave him a raised eyebrow, but said, “Let’s get moving.”

A strange growl came from the the garbage compactor. Lance guessed it was from whatever monster had dragged Shiro into the water while they were stuck in there. Hunk gave a quiet shriek and ran away from the door, more towards Shiro. Lance had jumped when he heard the growl, but tried to seem like he hadn’t, taking out his gun and aiming to the open door.

“No, wait! They’ll hear!” the Prince yelled.

Lance ignored him, shooting into the room. There were no more growls from the monster. He turned back around, about to say something to Hunk about being scared of the monster, but instead found a pissed off Prince in his face. Lance blinked once, looking at him, surprised.

“Listen,” the Prince began. “I don’t know who you are, or where you come from. But from now on, you’re going to do as I tell you. Okay?”

With that, the Prince began to walk off. Lance gave Hunk and Shiro a look, but neither one seemed surprised by the Prince’s outburst. Instead, they began to walk after him, down the hall. Lance felt a bit of anger rise in him and he started off after the Prince, falling in step next to him. “Hey, let’s get one thing straight, _Your Worship:_  I take orders from just one person. Me!”

Lance didn’t see it, but he knew the Prince rolled his eyes. “It’s a wonder you’re still alive.”

Falling back away from the Prince and next to Hunk, Lance sighed in defeat. “No reward is worth this.”

 

~*~

 

“Well, what do you think of that?” Lance asked, pulling at the gloves he’d been wearing as he sat in his chair in the _Blue Lion._ The only other person in the cockpit was the Prince, who was sitting in Hunk’s chair. He gave Lance a small smile, sitting up straight with his hands in his lap. Lance had considered offering him some other clothes to wear, but ultimately decided that the Prince wouldn’t appreciate his offer to disguise the fact that he thought the other man looked good in the white he was wearing.

They lost Kolivan in their escape to Lady Vrocek: a Galran warrior that was trained in the old ways of Marmora. She was a fierce weapon that everyone in the galaxy knew and was afraid of. Lance had just gotten a glance at her as they escaped and knew he’d never want to run into her again. After that, they’d had a run in with a few Galran fighters, but after a small fight, they’d won. Lance was proud of them all.

“You know, sometimes I even amaze myself,” he continued, taking off his last glove and throwing it on the console in front of him.

“That doesn’t sound too hard,” the Prince teased. Then, his expression grew more serious. “They let us go. It’s the only explanation for how easily we escaped.”

“Easy?” Lance asked. “You call that easy?”

“They’re tracking us.”

Lance smirked. There was _no_ way that was possible. “Not this ship, Highness.”

The Prince shook his head and sighed, leaning back into the seat. “At least the information in Pidge is still intact.”

“What’s so important?” Lance asked, finally fed up with not getting any answers. “What’re they carrying?”

“The plans to the _Extinction Moon_ ,” the Prince explained. “We’ve been told that the creator was a rebel, and that they purposefully added a way to destroy it. The instructions are in those plans.” The Prince looked away from Lance, out the window and to the stars. “It’s not over yet.”

Lance found himself nodding along for a moment. He understood that there would still be a lot of fighting for the rebels, and for the Prince. If he chose to help, it would be a very long journey. But then Lance found himself remembering that he was a smuggler. That he still had a debt that could very well lead him to becoming a dead man if he didn’t get the money he needed to Sendak. Maybe after he got that money he could come back. He could try to help, become something more than a smuggler.

But he also knew that, if he left, there was no way he would be able to find the rebels again.

So, regretting the words as soon as they came out of his mouth, Lance said, “It is for _me_ , Highness. Look, I’m not in this for your revolution, and I’m not in it for you, either. I’m just in it for the money.”

The Prince turned away from the window, giving Lance a sharp look. Lance felt his heart pound and guilt spread throughout him. “You don’t need to worry about your reward,” the Prince said, sharply. “If money is all you care about, then that’s what you’ll receive.”

With that, the Prince stood up and began to walk away. Lance looked out the window as he heard him stop, as well as someone else walking in. “Your friend there is quite the mercenary,” the Prince said, loudly. Lance could barely keep himself from flinching. “He doesn’t seem to care about anything. Or anyone.”

As the Prince walked away, Lance heard Shiro say, “ _I_ care,” which made him feel a bit worse. After another second, Shiro sat in the seat the Prince had just been in. “So...What do you think of him, Lance?”

Lance pretended to busy himself with some controls. “I’m trying _not_ to, Shiro.”

Shiro nodded awkwardly. “Good…”

The two were silent for another moment, until Lance couldn’t take it anymore. “Um...he’s got a lot of spirit, I guess.” _Kinda feisty for royalty, too,_ he thought. Though Princess Allura had been much calmer and easier to work with, Lance could see how she and her brother were related. “I don’t know. Do you think a Prince and a guy like me-?”

“No!” Shiro interrupted. The other man looked a bit awkward, as though talking about the whole thing made him uncomfortable, which made Lance laugh.

 

~*~

 

Lance had _not_ intended on going back. The Prince had made sure he’d gotten more than enough money to pay off his debt, and though Hunk had tried to talk him out of leaving multiple times, he had convinced himself that leaving was the best idea. He wasn’t made to be a rebel, or a good guy like Shiro was. He was a smuggler, and that was what he was going to have to continue being.

They didn’t make it that far when Hunk started talking again. “Man, am I going to miss those guys.”

Lance nodded, trying to focus on flying. He knew what Hunk was trying, and he was getting _very_ close to breaking.

“Shiro is going to be flying, Pidge and Matt are going to be doing calculations...and stuff…” Hunk sighed loudly when Lance didn’t say anything. “And the Prince...he sure sounded disappointed when you were leaving.”

Lance knew he did, because the Prince had talked to Shiro about what a coward he was very loudly and only a few feet away from him. Lance had flinched and walked into the _Blue Lion_ , deciding not to face his fears and just leave.

“It’s not like I like leaving,” Lance mumbled. “I just...I wouldn’t be a big help to them.”

“Lance, we have the _Blue Lion._ We helped rescue the Prince of Altea. We delivered the plans to the _Extinction Moon._ What do you think we’ve been doing, sleeping?”

“Well...they wouldn’t want me.” Lance finally looked down, at his hands on the controls. “I’m just a smuggler. I’m a criminal, and they’re...all good guys. I wouldn’t fit in.”

“Do you really think that?” Hunk asked, giving his friend a pitying look. “Lance, you’re not just a smuggler. You’ve been doing some real good recently, y’know? And, technically, all the rebels could be considered criminals to the Empire, so I think you’d fit in just fine.”

Lance laughed once, then shook his head. “What does it matter? I ran away. And the Prince hates me. There’s…”

“Lance.” Hunk was giving him a big smile when he turned to look. “Turn around. We’ve got a fight to catch up on.”

With another laugh, Lance gave in, and turned the ship around.

He’d ended up helping in the end. He shot down the fighters that were targeting Shiro, who had been racing toward the small opening to drop some torpedoes in, which would destroy the super weapon. He’s also pretty sure he damaged Lady Vrocek’s ship as he did so, but didn’t think too hard about it as Shiro blew up the _Extinction Moon_ , instead focusing on flying back to the small moon the rebel base was on. Once he landed, he ran up to Shiro, who was surrounded by the rest of the rebels and being hugged by the Prince.

“Hey!” he yelled as he ran up to them.

Shiro let go of the Prince and hugged Lance quickly. “I knew you’d come back!” he cheered.

“Well, I couldn’t let you take all the credit,” Lance laughed, glancing to the Prince. “Or take all the reward.”

He expected the Prince to be mad at him. He expected to be yelled at, or for the Prince to have at least a few choice words to give him. Instead, he ran forward to give Lance a hug. “I knew there was more to you than money,” he said, giving Lance the biggest grin he’d ever seen on anyone.

And that was the best day of Lance’s life.

 

~*~

 

This planet was _cold_ , and that was pretty much the only thing Lance knew about it.

He’d been here with the rebels for nearly a year. They were told before arriving that they wouldn’t be able to leave for some time, so as to not alert the Empire to their whereabouts, which Lance had been fine with. When deciding to go with them, he’d basically said ‘fuck you’ to Sendak, and knew by now that the Hutt had to be looking for him. If he left, he was a dead man. So he stayed.

That morning he’d gone on patrol with Shiro, who’d decided to stay out later to investigate a meteor. Lance had been freezing by that point and decided to go back to the base, where he could get at least a little warmer. After re-entering, he walked to where the _Blue Lion_ sat. Hunk was up top, working on repairing the ship with Pidge. All the cold had gotten to her, so she needed some fixing. Lance decided to let the geniuses work on it and not get involved. After greeting his friends, he walked off towards the control room, where the General would be.

In two days, the rebels had prepared the evacuation. It was time they moved to a new base, and Lance planned on departing from them to, hopefully, pay off Sendak. After that, he hoped that he might just be able to find them again and rejoin the fight. At the same time, Lance knew that if he didn’t follow the rebels to the new base, he’d probably never find them again. He wanted to let the General know he was leaving.

Lance had barely entered the control station when he caught sight of Keith. The Altean Prince had gone through quite a few changes in the past year: he’d reunited with his sister, who hadn’t been on Altea when it was destroyed. The Empire didn’t know that she was part of the Rebellion, so she decided to continue working within the senate, trying to do any good she could there. Keith stayed with the Rebellion, working as one of the leaders, even if he claimed he wasn’t suited for the role.

He’d done one of the last things he could to “forget” Altea, and that was cut his hair. It had previously been so long it almost brushed his ankles, as Altean heirs usually grow out their hair to be long, no matter what gender they were. Keith had choppily done it himself, but couldn’t quite reach back far enough to get it even, so he now had a mullet, fit with bangs that got into his face all the time. When Lance had first seen him with the new hairstyle he didn’t recognize him, and then when he did he made fun of the mullet, then offered to even it out for Keith, who immediately refused.

Lance also realized that Keith wasn’t an Altean. He was raised there, sure, and his parents were the King and Queen, but Keith didn’t have the markings under his eyes or the pointed ears, not to mention that his skin was pale and hair black, countering his family’s dark skin and white hair. Lance’s only explanation was that he’d been adopted, but he never mentioned it to Keith. The Prince never seemed to want to talk about Altea, which was fine with Lance, who wasn’t sure he would be able to talk about it, either.

Keith was now dressed in light gray pants and vest, a white long sleeved shirt and dark gray boots. He was looking at Lance as the other walked in, but once Lance looked his way, Keith quickly pretended to be interested in the console in front of him. Lance sighed once, wishing he and Keith could quit dancing around one another, and walked to the General, who was observing some sort of video.

“No sign of life out there, General,” he began, once the General nodded at him. “Sensors are in place, so you’ll know if anything comes around.”

“Did Commander Shiro report in, yet?” the General asked.

Lance shook his head. “No, he was checking out a meteor that struck not too far away.”

“With all the meteor activity near here, it’ll be difficult to spot approaching ships.”

After a few seconds pause, Lance spoke up again. “General, I can’t stay here.”

The General looked up at Lance, giving him a sad look. “I’m sorry to hear that.”

“Well, if I don’t pay off Sendak the Hutt, then I’m a dead man.”

The General nodded. “A death mark’s not an easy thing to live with.” The man looked up and smiled, holding out a hand to Lance to shake. “You’re a good fighter, McClain. I hate to lose you.”

Lance shook the man’s hand. “Thank you, General.” He turned away, catching Keith’s gaze as he began to walk towards the door. Before he reached it, he changed course and walked to where Keith was standing. “Well, Your Highness, I guess this is it.”

Nobody else referred to Keith with any royal terminology, per his request, but Lance had always been one to give people nicknames, and he couldn't stop. For some reason, Keith never yelled at him for it. Keith nodded once. “That’s right,” he said, coldly.

Lance waited for him to say something else, but the other man only looked at him with unwavering eyes. Finally, he sighed. “Well, don’t get all mushy on me,” he mumbled. “So long, Highness.” With that, he walked out of the control room.

He barely made it out the hall before he heard Keith yell, “Lance!”

“Yes, Your Worshipfulness?” he asked, stopping and giving Keith the brightest smile he could manage.

Keith stopped next to him. His glare began to melt away into something more neutral. “I...thought you’d decided to stay.”

“Well, that bounty hunter we ran into a few nights ago changed my mind,” Lance admitted. It was true, as before he’d died, the bounty hunter warned Lance that Sendak was out for him, and that there were more bounty hunters looking to get ahold of Lance and the reward money promised.

“Lance, we need you!” Keith shouted. Nobody else in the hallway turned towards them; by now they were so used to the two fighting they just didn’t pay attention anymore.

“We need?” Lance asked. Keith nodded, but Lance knew there was more to it. He knew that Keith felt something more for him, just like he was sure he was developing feelings for Keith. Or he was just realizing he’d had feelings for the Prince all along. He wasn’t sure yet. “Well, what about _you_ need?”

“ _I_ need?” Keith asked. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

Lance raised one hand, which formed into a fist. “You probably do.” He turned and began to walk down the hallways, towards the hangar where the _Blue Lion_ was waiting.

“And what am I supposed to know?” Keith yelled after him, walking quickly to keep up with Lance as they weaved down the hallways.

“Come _on_ ,” Lance groaned to himself. “You want me to stay because of the way you feel about me.”

“Yes!” Keith yelled. Lance almost stopped in surprise when he heard that, for a moment thinking that Keith was about to admit that he indeed had feelings for Lance the same way he did for Keith. “You’re a great help to us, you’re a natural leader…”

That was _not_ what Lance meant, and he was almost one hundred percent sure Keith knew it. He stopped and turned to face Keith, pointing a finger in his face. “No! That’s not it.” Maybe it was the cold, but Keith’s cheeks were red, and Lance was going to leave in two days, so...he decided it was pretty much now or never. “Come on,” he challenged, now pointing instead at his lips. Keith gave him an astounded look, which was adorable, but the Prince didn’t move, which didn’t help Lance’s confidence at all. After someone walked between them to get down the hall, he gestured to his lips again. “Aha! Come on.”

“You’re imagining things,” Keith said quickly, voice a little shaky.

“Am I?” Lance asked. “Then why are you following me? Afraid that I’d leave without giving you a goodbye kiss?”

Keith’s astounded expression melted away into something more murderous. “I’d just as soon kiss a Galra.”

“I can arrange that!” Lance shouted, not bothering to think of the logistics of actually finding a Galra for Keith to kiss. He turned away from Keith and continued down the hall. This time, he didn’t hear Keith’s footsteps walking after him. “You could _use_ a good kiss!”

 

~*~

 

After nearly freezing to death, both Lance and Shiro were making a rapid recovery.

Shiro had to go into a crypod after the medics confirmed he had gotten hypothermia, but he’d only been in one for a few hours before he was able to come out. After they’d gotten no transmission from Shiro for hours, Lance had gone out after him, finding him lying in the snow, nearly frozen. They’d both almost died that night, but luckily had come out of it with only a few scrapes and some cold in their bones.

After being taken out of the crypod, Shiro was recovering in a bed, talking to Pidge and Matt when Lance walked in, Hunk right behind him. “How’re you feeling, Shiro?” he asked. Shiro gave him a tired smile. “You don’t look so bad to me.”

The only scar Shiro suffered was one across his nose, which was pretty noticeable now, but after a time no one would see it. “One of the medics said that that scar you got was from some sort of snow yeti-thing?” Hunk said, looking concerned. “Is that even real?”

Shiro gave a chuckle and nodded. “Yeah. It’s okay though, I got away. Thanks to Lance.”

Lance grinned brightly. “That’s two you owe me,” he said, standing up straight. He looked towards the door, where Keith was standing, arms crossed and leaning against the doorway. “Well, Your Worship, it seems you’ve managed to keep me around for a little while longer.”

Keith looked away from Shiro, to Lance so he could glare at him. “I had nothing to do with it,” he said. “You shouldn’t leave before the evacuation, anyways.”

“That’s a good story,” Lance said, leaning against Shiro’s bed with a confident smirk. “I just think you can’t bear to let a gorgeous guy like me out of your sight.”

Keith only raised an eyebrow this time. “I don’t know where you get your delusions, Sharpshooter.”

Hunk quietly chuckled at Lance’s side, obviously trying not to make too much noise. Lance gave him a ‘really?’ look. “Betrayed by my own friend…” he muttered. “Laugh it up,” he said, louder. He got off Shiro’s bed and walked to Keith, putting an arm around him. Keith looked confused up at Lance. “But you didn’t see us alone in the South Passage. He expressed his true feelings for me.”

Hunk’s eyes bulged as he tried not to laugh harder from behind his hands. Matt’s eyes widened, Pidge looked annoyed. Shiro looked almost proud, but Keith...Keith looked murderous.

“My…?” he began. Sensing an outburst, Lance took his arm back and quickly walked back to Shiro. “Why, you stuck up...half-witted...scruffy looking... _nerf herder!”_

Out of everything Keith had said, Lance was only offended by one thing. “Who’s scruffy looking?” he asked. Keith didn’t give him an answer, so he looked back at Shiro. “You know, one day I’ll get him to admit it...and all this dancing around will be worth it.”

Keith’s glare didn’t let up. He walked towards Shiro’s bed, stopping next to it. “Well, then I guess you don’t know everything about me, huh?” he asked. He then leaned down, grabbing Shiro’s face by his cheeks to press their lips together. Lance could only stare at them as they kissed, Shiro looking far too surprised to do anything other than sit there and let Keith do as he pleased. Lance counted a full five seconds until Keith pulled away, letting go of Shiro to give Lance one last glare, then walk out of the room.

Shiro looked almost guilty, but Lance knew it wasn’t his fault. Keith had never expressed any interest in him before, so Lance was sure this was just to get under his skin. He patted Shiro’s shoulder once, then gratefully heard the General tell him to report to the control room. “Take it easy,” he told Shiro, then ran out of the room.

 

~*~

 

Lance ran down the hallway towards the control room as fast as he could. With all the damage the base had taken from the Empire’s sudden attack, he had to weave through piles of snow, fallen pipes and even a few dead rebels. Hunk and Pidge had done all they could for the _Blue Lion_ , but now they had to leave. Lance had asked anyone he could to find out of Keith had left yet, but everyone had said he was still in the control room, despite the General ordering him to leave.

Finally reaching the destroyed entrance, Lance looked around the heavily damaged room to see Keith inside. He was one of four people still in, doing all they could for the rebels fighting outside. Keith was standing next to one of the panels that hadn’t been destroyed, talking to the woman that was quickly typing. Matt hovered nearby. “You alright?” Lance yelled at him.

Keith turned quickly at Lance’s shout, immediately glaring. “Why are you still here?” he asked, talking loudly over the booms from above.

“I hate to admit it, but Blue’s repairs weren’t done,” Lance shouted back, pushing what wreckage he could out of his way to make his way towards Keith.

“You got your clearance to leave,” Keith shouted, turning back to the woman next to him.

“Yeah, I’ll leave,” Lance said, mostly to himself, “once I get you to your ship.”

“Keith, I really think we should get out of here,” Matt spoke up, “while we still can.”

Keith ducked under Lance’s outstretched arm to run to one of the other consoles. “Alter the sector calls to the South gate to defend the fighters!” he ordered as he ran.

A harsh blast rocked the base, causing snow to fall down on top of Matt, who yelled in surprise. After that blast, the yells of a fighter came through the comlink: “Galra troops have entered the base! Galra troops have entered the-”

Lance ran over to Keith, grabbing his arm before he could run anywhere else. “Highness…” he whispered, hoping he didn’t look as scared as he felt.

Keith looked into his eyes for a moment, before finally nodding and turning back to the man he was next to. “Give the evacuation code signal,” he ordered, allowing Lance to start pulling him towards the doors. “And get to your transports!” he yelled, finally turning around and running with Lance down the hallways.

The transport waiting for Keith was in a different hangar from the _Blue Lion_. Lance, Keith and Matt ran down the hallways as quickly as they could, but eventually they couldn’t go any further. Another blast hit the base, causing the ceiling to cave in, nearly landing on top of Keith and Lance. Lance quickly pushed Keith to the ground, away from the wreckage, shielding him with his body. When the snow settled, Lance stood back up and looked around, finding no way through.

He grabbed his comlink. “General, this is McClain. You guys better take off, we can’t get to you. I’ll get Keith out in Blue.” After the General gave the affirmative, Lance grabbed Keith’s arm and began to pull him back towards the hanger the _Blue Lion_ was in.

The hangar was empty except for Hunk and the ship. He was standing at the entrance, waving to the small group as soon as he saw them run in. Lance kept a firm grip on Keith’s arm as they ran inside, Matt following close behind. “She’s still not ready!” Hunk yelled, running straight to the main control panel. “I don’t think she’ll even start!”

Lance finally released Keith’s arm. He ran to the panel, pressing the buttons and moving the dials to start the ship. She groaned once, then stopped. Smoke began to billow out of a different room, which Hunk ran into. “What is it, Hunk?” Lance yelled.

Hunk coughed. “She won’t start! Give me a minute, I’ll get it fixed.”

“We don’t  _have_ a minute!” Lance adjusted some of the dials, then pressed a few more buttons. “How about that?” he asked.

“At this point, it would’ve been faster if we just dug through the snow,” Keith growled, giving Lance a harsh look.

“Sweetheart, not in the mood,” Lance sing-songed, adjusting another dial. After pressing the button, the ship groaned again, but didn’t stutter to a stop. “She good, Hunk?!”

“For, like, a few minutes!” Hunk yelled back.

“That’s all we need,” Lance whispered to himself.

“Uh, Lance, can I tell you-?” Matt began.

Lance pushed past him. “Can’t talk right now, gotta leave!”

“But…”

Lance ran into the cockpit, flipping a switch to turn on the controls there. The _Blue Lion_ groaned again, and this time stuttered to a stop. Lance quickly hit the wall, and they blinked back to life, staying on this time. Lance fell into his chair, grabbing the steering.

“This bucket of bolts is never gonna make it past the blockade!” Keith yelled as he ran into the cockpit.

Lance smirked. “Blue’s got a few surprises left in her, Sweetheart.”

“Troopers!” Keith yelled, pointing out the window. Sure enough, there were Galra troops standing in the hangar, their guns raised towards the ship. Lance quickly pressed a button to lower a hidden gun, which began firing at them.

“Hunk, hurry up!” he yelled just as his friend ran in. Hunk fell into his seat, Keith sitting in the one behind Lance. “Let’s hope we don’t have a burnout.”

Hunk began working, trying to get the _Blue Lion_ to take off. “Lance, we’ve only got a few minutes before she stops moving.”

“Let’s make ‘em count,” Lance mumbled.

“Someday, something is going to fail you,” Keith said behind Lance, “and I just hope I’m there to see it.”

“Punch it!” Lance yelled, ignoring Keith. The _Blue Lion_ finally took to the air, flying out of the hangar before any more damage could be done. She began to fly up, into the atmosphere. Lance looked at the ships scanner to see that there weren’t very many ships up in orbit, but it would still be a challenge to get by unscathed. “Oh, this is where the fun begins…” he mumbled to himself.

Luckily or unluckily, only one of the huge cruisers began to fly after the _Blue Lion._ “We need more power!” Hunk yelled, getting out of his seat to rush back to the main controls.

“Give us as much time as you can, Hunk!” Lance yelled back. “Keith, quick, hit that button over there!”

Keith didn’t hesitate, standing up and rushing to the button Lance had pointed at. “Fighters are coming in after us.”

“How many?” Lance asked.

“Not that many.”

Lance rolled his eyes, activating another hidden gun that began to fire backwards. “Rear shields are up at max!” he yelled back to Hunk.

Hunk ran back up after another minute. “I got us a little more time, but we are going to have to land soon.”

“Oh, yeah, I’ll work on that,” Lance mumbled, gesturing to the expanse of space in front of them.

For another few seconds, the only sounds made was gunfire. Then, Hunk said, “Uh, Lance? You’re not gonna like this, but…”

“I know, I saw them!”

“Saw what?” Keith asked.

“More cruisers. Two of them, dead ahead.” Lance reached forward to press another button. “Buckle up, I’m gonna make the jump to hyperspace.”

“Wait, Lance, there’s a problem-!” Matt began to yell.

“Matt, not now!” Lance yelled back. “Check the shields.” He looked back up to see the cruisers right in front of them. “Great…” he mumbled, jerking the controls to move the ship down, under the cruisers. They were moving too fast, and almost crashed into the one following the _Blue Lion._ Lance smirked, “Now’s our chance, prepare to go to lightspeed.”

Hunk nodded, adjusting some controls. Matt yelled some sort of protest, which Lance ignored. “They’re getting closer,” Keith noted.

“Oh, yeah?” Lance asked, grabbing the lever to jump the ship to lightspeed. “Watch this!”

The ship groaned again, and didn’t go any faster.

“Watch what?” Keith asked, sounding more aggravated.

Lance’s eyes widened, looking at the lever he just pulled. He pushed it back up, then pulled it back down, but nothing happened. He and Hunk turned to look at each other at the same time. “I think we’re in trouble,” he said.

“Lance, I’ve been trying to tell you this whole time,” Matt yelled, “the hyperdrive has been damaged! It’s _impossible_ to go to lightspeed!”

Lance and Hunk jumped up. “We’re in trouble!” Lance screamed as the two ran to the main controls. Hunk ran back into a room as Lance tried adjusting some controls, hoping to make any sort of difference. “Hunk, what do we do?!” he screamed.

“I don’t know!” Hunk yelled back. “Without a hyperdrive, we’re sitting ducks!”

Before Lance could yell anything back, something struck the ship that almost made him fall over. “That wasn’t a laser blast, something hit us.”

“Lance get up here!” Keith yelled from the cockpit. Lance and Hunk both ran back in, taking their seats again. “Asteroids!”

Just when Lance was about to freak out even more and try to get the ship out of there, he realized that the huge cruisers would have a lot of difficulty getting through the field. And that he could probably fly them through with minimal damage. Hopefully. He adjusted a dial, then grabbed the controls. “Okay, here we go.”

“What’re you doing?” Keith asked, grabbing Lance’s chair from behind. “You’re not actually gonna fly through an asteroid field?!”

“It’ll be too hard for them to follow us,” Lance quickly explained, trying to focus on avoiding the smaller rocks. Already they were approaching the huge ones.

He heard Keith gulp. “You don’t need to do this to impress me.”

“Hate to say it, but I don’t do everything I do for your benefit, Highness,” Lance quickly said. Thankfully, everyone in the cockpit seemed to realize how hard Lance was trying to focus, and remained quiet. The fighters that followed them in were quickly destroyed, and they lost the cruisers quickly.

“We’re gonna get pulverized if we stay out here much longer,” Keith said, breaking the silence.

“Yeah, I’m gonna fly in towards one of the big ones,” Lance said.

“Towards?!” Keith and Matt yelled.

Lance nodded, flying them towards the biggest one he could find. He quickly found a large creator that went far into the asteroid, and flew down it. Once they landed, he began to turn off some controls. “Hunk, turn off everything we can so we can try to fix Blue,” he sighed, hands slightly shaking as he let go of the controls. Hunk nodded, then got up and left the cockpit.

“That was terrifying,” Keith whispered, probably to himself.

Lance chuckled, then got up and left the cockpit.

 

~*~

 

Everyone ended up getting a job to do. Hunk and Matt ended up doing most of the bigger jobs while Lance did what he could to do some minor repairs. Keith wanted to help, too, and when Lance had protested had ended up yelling at him that he actually knew how to fix things and wasn’t going to sit around and do nothing. Hunk had given him a smaller job of repairing the shield generator, which wasn’t that damaged in the first place but _did_ seem to satisfy Keith.

“Lance, I think I know what’s wrong with the hyperdrive,” Matt spoke up after Lance had done another rotation of picking things up around the ship. “The power coupling on the negative axis-”

“Matt,” Lance interrupted.

“Right. You’re gonna have to replace it.”

Lance sighed and nodded. Hopefully they wouldn’t have to go into lightspeed anytime soon. That pretty much meant they were going to have to avoid running into any Empire ships for a while. Which also meant they were gonna be in the asteroid a while longer.

Walking further down the ship, Lance stopped when he saw Keith working. He stood in the doorway as he watched the other man finish putting some pieces back in place, then grab a lever below it and try to push it in the right direction. It didn’t budge, no matter how hard he pushed. Lance stepped forward, reaching his arms around Keith’s to try and help him. As soon as he went to do so, Keith pushed him away harshly, using his back to hit Lance’s chest and force him away.

“Hey, easy, Your Worship,” Lance protested, standing up straight again. “I’m only trying to help.”

Keith pushed on the lever again. “Would you please _stop calling me that?!”_ he grunted. The lever still didn’t move.

“Sure, Keith,” Lance mumbled, leaning back against the doorway.

Keith sighed, stopping his pushing for a moment. “You make things so difficult sometimes,” he muttered under his breath.

Lance smirked. “I do, don’t I?” he asked, stepping a bit closer again. “You could be a little nicer, though.” Keith rolled his eyes, pushing harder at the lever that still wouldn’t budge. “Admit it, sometimes you think I’m alright.”

Keith finally let go of the lever, shaking his right hand and rolling his wrist. “Occasionally. Maybe.” He turned around to face Lance. “When you’re not acting like a scoundrel.”

“Scoundrel?” Lance asked, walking until Keith was backed up against the wall and there was little space between them. Keith nodded, and Lance grabbed his right hand and began to massage it, hoping to soothe away any pain there. “Scoundrel. I like the sound of that.”

Keith frowned, looking confused and at the same time a little afraid. “Stop it,” he demanded.

“Stop what?”

“Stop _that,”_ Keith whispered, nodding to where Lance was holding his hand. Still, he didn’t try to pull away. “My...hands are dirty.”

Lance chuckled. “My hands are dirty too. What’re you afraid of?”

Keith scoffed. “Afraid?”

With a nod, Lance began to lean in closer, until there was barely any space between them. “You’re trembling,” he pointed out, feeling Keith do so just slightly. He would’ve backed away if he noticed Keith was uncomfortable, but Keith wasn’t giving off any of those signs. Instead, he almost seemed to be trembling with anticipation.

Keith shook his head quickly, nearly brushing his nose with Lance from how close they were. “I’m not trembling,” he whispered.

Lance could feel himself smirking. “Maybe it’s because I’m a scoundrel,” he whispered back. “And you’ve never had a scoundrel in your life.”

Keith shook his head. His eyes were wide, but kept flickering down to Lance’s lips. He seemed to try to back away further, but Lance had him pressed up against the wall. There wasn’t anywhere to go. “I...I happen to like _nice_ men,” Keith tried.

Lance’s smirk melted away to a kinder smile. “I’m a nice man,” he pointed out.

Keith shook his head. “No you’re not,” he mumbled, then reached up to grab the back of Lance’s head and finally bring them to kiss.

It was sweet and innocent, kind of like Keith, or at least that’s what Lance thought. It didn’t last that long, because they were rudely interrupted by Matt, who yelled happily to Lance that he’d fixed something. Lance broke away from Keith, taking a second to look into the other’s eyes, and then pushed away from him, turning to the doorway to thank Matt for his work, and then turned back around with full intentions of talking out what just happened with Keith.

Who wasn’t there anymore.

 

~*~

 

After escaping the disgusting worm hidden in the asteroid, and managing to fool the Empire by hiding on the back of one of their cruisers, Lance thought they were in pretty good shape for not having a hyperdrive and being hunted mercilessly. There weren’t many systems nearby to run to, but suddenly Lance remembered an old friend who ran a mining colony not too far away. It was possible that he’d give them repairs.

Or leave them for dead.

Whatever, Lotor was their best chance. Just before the cruisers when to lightspeed, the _Blue Lion_ detached and floated away with the rest of the garbage that had been thrown into space, waiting until the fleet was gone before speeding off towards Thayserix. They had a bit of difficulty landing, but once they made it, Lance got the greeting he expected. Lotor walked towards the group with his cape flowing behind him, insulted Lance once, then hugged him.

“It’s so good to see you!” Lotor said, grinning. “What’re you doing here?”

Lance jerked his thumb back towards the _Blue Lion._ “Repairs,” he explained. “I was hoping I could get a hand?”

Lotor immediately frowned. “What’ve you done to my ship?” he asked.

“ _Your_ ship?” Lance asked. “Hey, you lost her to me, fair and square.”

Lotor rolled his eyes. “And how are you, Hunk?” he asked, turning away from Lance.

“I’m good,” Hunk responded.

“Still hanging out with Loverboy, huh?” Lotor flashed a smirk back at Lance. Hunk laughed loudly. Lance pouted. Lotor still remembered that, huh?

Lotor then noticed Keith, and walked elegantly towards him. “My name is Lotor,” the half-Galra greeted, taking Keith’s hand. Keith looked like he was used to it - or had been, in the past. “I’m the leader here on Thayserix. And who might you be?”

“Keith,” the Prince answered, giving Lotor a painful smile.

“Welcome, Keith.” Lotor kissed Keith’s hand.

“Okay, that’s enough,” Lance mumbled, walking forward and breaking them apart. He held Keith’s hand tightly in his own and gave Lotor a small glare. Lotor smirked back, then turned around to lead them off the landing platform and to the room they’d be staying in. Along the way he assured that he’d get his workers on the hyperdrive right away. He made sure they got new clothes and food, saying he’d leave them alone that night and check back in the next day.

Matt didn’t show up at the room the whole night. Hunk grew worried, especially when morning came and he didn’t show up, so he decided to go out and try to find him. Lance checked in with the workers, then returned to the room, where Keith was. He was now dressed in red pants and shirt, with a white and long vest over the top, which nearly reached the floor. In short, he looked good.

“Repairs are nearly done,” he announced in greeting. “They say they should be done by tonight at the latest.”

“The sooner the better,” Keith responded, turning away from the window he was at and walking towards Lance. “Something’s wrong, okay? Matt is still missing, and it’s been too long for him to have gotten lost.”

Lance lightly gripped Keith’s upper arms once he was close enough and pressed a kiss to his forehead. “Relax, okay? I’ll get Lotor on it.”

Keith’s frown didn’t let up. “I don’t trust Lotor,” he muttered.

“I don’t trust him either,” Lance admitted, bringing them to sit down. “But he _is_ my friend.”

Keith rolled his eyes, but before he could respond, Hunk ran in, holding a tub full of parts. “Look at this!” he yelled as he ran in.

“Is that Matt?” Keith asked, sounding surprised. He and Lance got up and ran over, seeing that it _was_ Matt, but now in pieces.

“I found him in a junk pile,” Hunk sighed. “This is gonna take forever to put him back together."

“Can you do it?” Lance asked. “Otherwise Lotor probably has people who can.”

“No,” Keith shot down.

The door then opened, and Lotor himself walked in. “Am I interrupting anything?” he asked.

Lance shook his head, getting to his feet. “What is it?” he asked.

“Well, I was just going to ask if you’d join me for dinner. But, if you’re busy with your droid…”

“No, we’ll go,” Lance reassured, shaking his head. He held out his arm for Keith to take, which he did. Hunk reluctantly put down Matt’s pieces and stood up as well, walking after Lotor with Keith and Lance.

Lotor explained a bit of business as they walked: about his harvesting quintessence from the planet. Apparently they weren’t in the Empire’s watch list, and didn’t have to deal with them at all. It was a sneaky operation, but if Lotor kept it small enough then they wouldn’t be noticed.

“Aren’t you worried about the Empire finding out?” Keith asked.

“No,” Lotor responded, stopping at a door. “I’m not. Besides, I’ve just made a deal that will keep the Empire out of here for good.”

The door opened. Lance looked inside and felt his heart begin to pound faster. Lady Vrocek stood up from her seat at the head of the table, looking just as calm and intimidating as she’d always been. Her black armor stood out strongly from the white of the room around her. Her helmet made an awful rasping noise that was loud even when she was across the room. Hunk shouted a warning, and Lance drew his gun, shooting at her, but she simply held up her hand and didn’t move. Next thing Lance knew, his gun was ripped from his hand, flying into hers.

“We would be honored if you would join us,” she spoke. Her voice was deep and sent chills down Lance’s spine. From behind her walked two bounty hunters Lance had seen at Sendak’s palace multiple times: Zethrid and Ezor.

As Galra troops ran down the hallway, guns pointed at the group, Lotor spoke. “I had no choice, they arrived right before you did. I’m sorry.”

Lance glared at his so-called friend. Hunk looked worried, eyes darting between the troops and Lady Vrocek. Keith didn’t look that surprised, if only a little worried. Lance took his hand and squeezed tightly. “I’m sorry, too,” Lance whispered in response. He then turned towards the woman in black, and began to walk inside the dining room.

 

~*~

 

Standing in only his boots, pants and white shirt, Lance flexed his wrists from where they were confined in binders. He was standing just in front of Hunk, who had Matt’s partially fixed body strapped to his back, and Keith. They were in a room that seemed to be a boiler room of some sort - something for the inner workings of the city. It was hot, dark, and full of smoke. Lance had no idea why they were there.

He took a hesitant step forward so he was in line with Lotor. “So, what’s going on...buddy?” he asked, not taking his eyes off of Zethrid or Ezor, or Lady Vrocek.

Lotor was silent for a moment. “They’re going to put you in carbon freeze,” he finally explained.

Lance blinked once, not sure he heard Lotor right. But he also knew that his former friend wouldn’t lie about something like this. “Oh, for them?” he whispered, jerking his head towards the bounty hunters.

Lotor nodded once. “They’re testing it on you to make sure it’s safe for Shirogane.”

Lance took a step back, feeling his hands start to shake. Carbon freeze wasn’t very common, but it’s said to be painful. If you survived the freezing process, you would be put into hibernation sleep, and would essentially be very well protected. It was said to be a way to smuggle Marmorans around in the Clone Wars. Only now, Lance was going to be put inside.

“Put him in!” Lady Vrocek suddenly demanded.

Lance looked up in surprise when a trooper grabbed his arm, but just after they did Hunk yelled, “NO!” and ripped the trooper off of Lance.

“No, Hunk, stop!” Lance yelled, trying to grab Hunk before he could cause anymore damage. Two troopers ran up and grabbed Hunk’s wrists, binding them. “Hunk, Hunk! Listen to me!”

It took a few more yells for Hunk to finally stop struggling, looking at Lance with glassy eyes. Lance could feel his heart start to break, and he realized that, as afraid as he was to go through this, his friend had to be ten times more scared. What did Lance have to lose? All he had was his ship, Hunk, and _maybe_ Keith, though the other was a ticking time bomb of either wanting to be at Lance’s side or wanting to kick his ass.

Yes, Lance realized that he was going to die. If he didn’t die to the freezing process, he was Zethrid and Ezor’s, which meant he was going to be Sendak’s. Sendak would most likely be so gleeful to see Lance trapped the way he was that he would never be let out, and would eventually die. Or, he would let Lance out, and then torture him until he died. No matter what happened, Lance was a dead man. And he was slowly accepting his fate.

“Hunk, this won’t help me,” Lance said softly, giving Hunk the best smile he could manage. “Just...save your strength, yeah? There will be another time.” He glanced to his left, where Keith was hovering next to Hunk, looking at Lance with wide eyes. He was pretty sure Keith had no clue what was about to happen to him. “The Prince...you’ve got to take care of him. For me. Promise?” he asked, looking back to Hunk.

Hunk sniffed, and his lower lip wobbled, but he slowly nodded. Lance then turned to Keith, who had reached up to grab Hunk’s arm. He gave Keith a smile, which wasn’t returned. This would be the last time he’d ever see Keith. He had to make it count. Lance quickly walked forward to give Keith a kiss, which Keith returned. They only had a few seconds before troopers harshly pulled Lance away, to the platform which would lower him for the freezing process.

“I love you!” Keith suddenly blurted. His eyes were looking more pained, and he was breathing heavily, though if it was because of the kiss, Lance didn’t know. He was just so surprised that Keith had told him that.

There was no point in telling Keith how he felt. If the other didn’t know it by now, then Lance wasn’t sure what would make him believe it. Besides, he was going to die. He didn’t want Keith to hold onto the fact that Lance had loved him and that they were too late to do anything about it. He smiled softly and said, “I know.”

Two of the goblin-like workers ran up to remove the binders around Lance’s wrists. He kept eye contact with Keith as the platform he was on slowly lowered. Hunk was sobbing up there, Matt was yelling for someone to tell him what was going on, but Keith was silent. He held his gaze, right up to when the platform stopped moving, and the cylinder room Lance had been lowered into filled with smoke.

Then, everything went black.

 

~*~

 

Lance came back to reality to the feeling of falling.

He didn’t quite realize he _was_ falling until someone had caught him. They slowly lowered him to the floor, holding tightly to his arms as he began to shake. It didn’t fully register to him that he was alive until he heard someone talk. He assumed it was whoever was holding him. Their voice was clearly disguised, making it sound robotic and very deep.

“Just relax for a moment,” they said. When Lance spasmed, they held tighter, wrapping their arms around his chest. It was kind of weird, but at the same time it was a bit comforting. “You’re free of the carbonite,” the person continued. “Shhh. You have hibernation sickness.”

Lance slowly opened his eyes, hoping to see who was holding him, but only saw black. He blinked a few times, but the black stayed. “I can’t see,” he said, feeling his breathing pick up. His voice was raspy, probably from little use.

“Your eyesight will return in time,” the person reassured him.

“Where am I?” Lance asked. The last thing he remembered was being in the freezing room, and that Keith had just confessed his love.

And, oh wow, Lance was alive. And wasn’t being yelled at by Sendak, or being tortured. Lance was going to have to find Keith as soon as he could actually see and control his limbs.

“Sendak’s palace,” the person explained. That made Lance’s heart skip a beat, and he stayed quiet for a second, waiting for the Hutt to laugh, or speak up, but if he was there, he didn’t.

Lance slowly turned his head towards where he assumed the person he was holding him was. He was almost afraid to ask, but he needed to know who this was. “Who...Who’re you?” he asked.

He felt the person move around, but Lance couldn’t tell what they were doing. After a few seconds of silence, they spoke again, but this time without anything disguising their voice. “Someone who loves you,” they said.

Lance gasped quietly. “Keith!” he said, feeling a smile shakily stretch on his face. He’d recognize that voice anywhere. He was very surprised when one of Keith’s hands went into his hair at the back of his head and angled it for a kiss. A very messy kiss that Lance hadn’t been expecting.

It took a few seconds for Keith to finally pull away, and for a second Lance found himself wondering how long he’d been in carbonite. “Come on, I’m getting you out of here,” Keith whispered, sliding his arm under Lance’s and helping him to his feet. They’d barely gotten up when Lance heard a laugh from behind him that made him shake more than he already was.

“I know that laugh…” he mumbled, turning around to face Sendak, even though he couldn’t see the Hutt. “Hey, Sendak...look, Sendak…” Lance tried to take a step forward without Keith’s help, but almost fell to the ground before the Prince grabbed him again. “I...I was on...I was on my way to pay...pay you back, and...and...got a little side tracked…” Lance shivered some more, and tried to swallow any nerves he had. “It’s not my fault.”

Sendak laughed. _“It’s too late for that, McClain,”_ he spoke in Huttese. _“You may have been a good smuggler, but now you’re nothing more than space garbage!”_

The other people in the room laughed along with Sendak. Lance didn’t let what the Hutt said get to him, instead focusing on not falling over. “Look…”

_“Take him away!”_ Sendak commanded.

“Wait...Sendak, I’ll...I’ll pay you triple,” Lance tried. He felt Keith’s hands being ripped away from him, and instead guards gripped him harshly from either side, starting to drag him away. “You’re throwing away a fortune, here, don’t be a fool!” he shouted quickly.

It was no use, though. He was taken away, though many hallways that he couldn’t see before finally being thrown into a cell of some sort. Lance only hoped that nothing dangerous was in it. He stumbled into the first wall he could find, leaning heavily against it, and still shaking. He finally heard a noise from somewhere in the cell. “Who’s...who’s there?” he asked, teeth chattering.

“Lance?” they asked. It was Hunk!

“Hunk!” Lance yelled. A moment later, Hunk was pulling him into a huge hug, talking a mile per minute about something he couldn’t tell. “Wai...wait, Hunk...I can’t see…”

“Keith must’ve gotten you out!” Hunk cheered. “Or Lotor. Probably Keith, though.”

Lance wanted to ask why Lotor was there, but decided it was a question for later. “What’s going on?”

“We’re rescuing you, of course!”

Lance blinked a few times, even though it was useless. “Oh, yeah, you guys...you guys have done a great job…”

“Did Keith get captured?” Hunk asked.

“I don’t know, I wake...wake up for a few minutes, and...and now I’m here…” Lance shook his head. “I need a break…”

Hunk pulled them both to the floor, which was probably disgusting, but he let Lance sit in his lap as they hugged. “Don’t worry. Shiro’s been training in Marmoran arts. He’ll save us.”

“God, what...what did I miss?” Lance asked.

 

~*~

 

It couldn’t have been more than a day before the guards were pulling Hunk and Lance out of the cell they were in, fastening binders around their wrists, and dragging them up to Sendak’s throne room. Lance was already feeling a bit better: he had more coordination of his limbs and didn’t shake anymore. The only problem was that he still couldn’t see.

“Lance!” he heard someone yell once they arrived. It was Shiro, Lance was sure of it.

“Shiro!” he called. After a moment, felt himself pushed closer to the other man. “Together again, huh?” he asked.

Shiro chuckled. “Wouldn’t miss it.”

“How are we doing?” Lance asked.

“Same as always.”

“That bad, huh?” The guards pulled Lance to a halt. He could feel Hunk and Shiro on either side of him. “Where’s Keith?” he asked.

“I’m here,” Lance heard Keith answer. Instead of next to them, he was right in front, which was confusing.

Sendak said something in Huttese, right in front of the prisoners. Lance heard Matt whimper quietly, and Lance was just confused. Why wasn’t Keith in line with them? He’d been caught too, right? But he was in front, right by Sendak…

... _oh._

Yeah, Sendak had a nasty habit of taking those he deems the most beautiful and making them his personal slave. Or something. Lance didn’t know much about it, but he’d seen many different girls and boys dressed in revealing clothes with a chain around their neck, which Sendak would hold tightly to. They sat on his throne with him, and...did things, Lance guessed? He saw one dance, once. Only now Keith was the slave. And probably dressed in revealing clothes.

And _Lance was blind, dammit._

The _one_ time he had to be blind. He figured Keith was probably both very embarrassed and very pissed off, and probably really glad Lance couldn’t see him. He was pulled from his thoughts when Matt started talking.

“His high exaltedness, the Great Sendak, has decreed that you are to be terminated...immediately.” Praise like that didn’t suit Matt.

“Good, I hate long waits,” Lance blurted.

“You will therefore be taken to the dune sea and cast into the pit of cocoon,” Matt continued, sounding bored. “The nesting place of the Sarlacc.”

“That doesn’t sound so bad,” Lance mumbled.

“You will be slowly digested over a thousand years.”

“On second thought, let’s pass on that, huh?”

“You should’ve taken my deal, Sendak,” Shiro spoke up. “That’s the last mistake you’ll ever make!”

Sendak laughed loudly as they were all escorted out of the room.

“Immediately” ended up being “as soon as the party barge could be set up”, which basically meant a few hours later. Lance, Shiro and Hunk were loaded up on a smaller barge that flew by the luxurious one Sendak was in. With Keith. Who was probably looking sexy.

Lance shook those thoughts from his head and looked ahead, finding himself squinting. “I think my sight is getting better,” he brought up. “Instead of a big dark blur, I can see a big light blur.”

“There’s nothing to see,” Shiro responded. “Just stay close to Hunk and Lotor. I’ll take care of everything.”

“Oh.” Lance couldn’t help but roll his eyes. “Great.”

 

~*~

 

They somehow won the battle.

Lance wasn’t sure how they did it, but that was probably due to him being blind throughout the whole thing. Still, once his sight began to return, it returned quickly. Halfway through the battle, when Lotor had nearly fallen into the Sarlacc pit, Lance had managed to see through the blur enough to shoot one of the tentacles that had grabbed Lotor’s leg. After pulling him back up to the small barge, and once Shiro and Keith had blown up the barge Sendak was on, he’d talked to Lotor and ended up forgiving him.

Leaning against the railing, Lance stood away from Shiro and Lotor, who were making plans. Hunk, Pidge and Matt were doing something else that Lance probably wouldn’t understand, so he focused himself on blinking away the rest of the blur in his eyes. He was pretty sure his sight was almost back to normal.

“Hey.”

Lance looked to where Keith was. Now that he actually had most of his sight back, he took in the fact that Keith was still dressed in the clothes Sendak had forced him into, still with the chain around his neck, though it was shorter that it probably had been. The clothes were very revealing: Keith didn’t have anything covering his chest. There were small gold shoulder pads and two gold bracelets he wore, but other than that there was only a gold band around his waist with two strips of magenta fabric that flowed from it and magenta boots.

Keith would want to have the outfit destroyed as soon as he got out of it. Lance was just trying to figure out how he was going to smuggle the outfit away from any incinerators to hopefully use in the future.

“How’re your eyes?” Keith asked, looking at his feet. He hadn’t noticed Lance’s staring yet, so he quickly decided to focus on Keith’s chin instead.

“Better,” Lance answered, smiling. “I can see more than just darkness, anyways.”

“Uh, how much better?” Keith looked like he was blushing, now. It was adorable.

“Blurs?” Lance answered. To save Keith a little embarrassment, Lance decided to pretend his eyesight wasn't as good as it actually is. “Like, I can see you, but not clearly.” He took the chance to look Keith up and down again. “Hey, are you wearing a shirt?” he asked.

Keith’s blush got darker. “It’s...a stupid outfit.”

“Oh.” Lance smirked. “I’d offer you my shirt, but that wouldn’t solve the problem, huh?”

Keith’s arms crossed in front of his chest, but he did let out a short laugh. Lance blinked a few more times, and the world became even more clearer. “Hey, there’s your face!” Lance cheered, taking a step towards Keith.

“No!” Keith yelled, reaching up to turn Lance away. “No, you can’t look!”

“What? But, Keith-!”

“No, no…” Keith’s arms trembled from where they were keeping Lance turned away. “It’s…”

“What?”

“...Embarrassing.”

“Aww, I’m sure it’s not that bad, Highness.”

Keith took a deep breath. “No. You’re just going to have to face that way until I get out of this.”

“I don’t even get a peek?” Lance whined.

“Nothing.”

 

~*~

 

Honestly, why was the Empire building _another_ _Extinction Moon?_

After destroying the first one, Lance thought that they would’ve thought twice before beginning construction. Now, though, Lance had been put in charge of creating a team to go to the planet Arus, where a shield generator was, currently keeping the _Extinction Moon_ protected. The team’s mission was to destroy the generator so that the fleet could destroy the super weapon. The bonus? Emperor Zarkon was on the _Extinction Moon,_ overseeing the construction.

This could be the rebels’ chance at finally getting rid of the Empire for good.

Just as Lance was finishing putting his team together, Hunk and Keith spoke up, saying they wanted to join. Lance almost protested, but knew there was no way he was getting rid of either of them. Shiro then returned from wherever he’d run off to, shouting that he wanted to be a part of the team as well, and Lance shook his head, knowing that he was stuck with them all. Another new thing about Shiro that Lance finally noticed, now that he had his sight back, was the mechanical arm and white bangs that replaced the black he’d once had. He wanted to ask, but figured it would be better to wait for that story until later.

Shiro ran down to where Lance, Hunk and Keith were sitting, Pidge following close behind and standing next to their brother. Shiro held out his arms and pulled Keith into a crushing hug, which the Prince tried to return, but seemed very awkward about it. After a moment, Shrio let go. “What is it?” Keith asked, looking confused at the dopely smiling Shrio.

“Ask me again later,” Shiro responded.

And that was the end of that.

Lotor was going to be in charge of the fleet destroying the _Extinction Moon._ The one problem was that he didn’t have a ship, and if Lance’s team was going to use a stolen Empire ship to get to Arus, he decided the least he could do was offer the _Blue Lion_ to Lotor. With the promise of not getting blown up. Or a scratch on the ship.

Now, they were on the planet, sneaking around in camo clothing, going towards the shield generator. They didn’t go far before spotting two Galra troops, standing next to two speeders. Without time to try and sneak around them, Lance and Hunk quietly made their way down towards them, intending on knocking them out and leaving them somewhere. Lance made the mistake of stepping on a branch as he snuck up on one of them, revealing himself. The trooper startled and turned around, punching him and knocking Lance to the ground.

“Go for help!” the trooper yelled to the other. “Go!”

The other trooper ran to one of the speeders and took off on it. Lance quickly shook the stars out of his vision and grabbed the trooper that stayed behind, knocking him into the nearest tree. Hunk lifted his gun and shot at the trooper speeding away, blowing it up before it could go too far. As Lance wrestled with the trooper, Keith and Shiro ran down to join them.

“Look!” Keith yelled, pointing. “Two more of them!”

The two troopers quickly sped off. Keith began to sprint towards the last speeder. “Wait, Keith!” Shiro yelled, running after him and just managing to hop on as Keith started the speeder, taking off after the two.

“Wait!” Lance tried to yell after them, but they were already gone. With a huff, he turned around and finally managed to take care of the trooper with him. With nothing else to do other than wait for the two to return, Lance and Hunk went back to the rest of their team, giving the orders to wait until they returned. If they didn’t by nightfall, they’d go on without them.

As much as it would pain Lance to do so.

After almost two hours of waiting, Pidge suddenly perked up. “Someone’s coming!” they hissed. Everyone got in defensive positions, hiding as best they could, but it was only Shiro.

“Shiro!” Lance cheered quietly, running out from his hiding place with Hunk right behind him. He frowned when he noticed the man was alone. “Where’s Keith?” he asked, worried.

“He didn’t come back?” Shiro asked.

“I thought he was with you.”

“We got separated,” Shiro explained.

Lance let out a long sigh, then turned to a different rebel to leave him in charge until he, Shiro, Hunk, Pidge and Matt returned. They nodded and began to lead the team away.

They seemed to walk aimlessly for hours, until finally Shiro reached down and picked up a helmet. It was Keith’s, there was no doubt about it. Near it was two destroyed speeders. Lance grabbed the helmet from Shiro’s hands and held it tightly. Even when Pidge said they couldn’t pick up any trace of the Prince, Lance knew that he had to be out there, somewhere.

“But there _is…_ ” They began to walk off.

“There’s what, Pidge?” Hunk asked.

The rest of the group followed them as they walked off, towards something only they knew about. They looked around curiously, before finally walking towards a low hanging branch with a dead carcass on it. “There’s that,” they said, face completely serious as they pointed to the dead animal.

“Why, Pidge?” Matt asked as they all crowded close to them.

“What?” Pidge gave a shrug. “Obviously something is alive around here. Locals, or something. Maybe they found Keith.”

“And what?” Lance asked. “Killed him and put his body in a tree?”

Pidge opened their mouth to answer, then closed it. They glanced back at the carcass.

“Pidge, don’t,” Matt warned. After another moment, he repeated, “Don’t!”

“Fine…” Pidge looked to the ground, and after a moment glanced back up.

“We should keep going,” Shiro said.

They all nodded, and turned to start walking. Before they could, Pidge reached up and grabbed the carcass, and then the group was flung into the air, trapped in a net of some sort. Everyone simultaneously shouted, “PIDGE!”

Pidge didn’t seem that sorry.

It was difficult to move around in the net, so Shiro couldn’t quite reach his Blade of Marmora, which he said could cut them out. Lance clumsily tried to reach for it, but before he could, Pidge had already cut them out using a secret saw they had in them. The group fell back to the ground hard, shouting in pain. They barely sat up before wooden spears were being pointed at them.

“What the _fuck,_ ” Lance muttered quietly. He raised his hands in surrender along with everyone else.

They were surrounded by small creatures with two or more curved horns on their heads. They looked confusedly at the small group, as though taking in their appearance. Lance figured they hadn’t seen humans before - maybe not any other creatures. Lance slowly sat up straighter, immediately met with a spear in his face.

“Hey,” he growled, pushing at the spear. “Point that thing somewhere else.”

The creatures started talking quickly with one another, but didn’t stop pointing their spears at the group. Lance began to raise his gun whe Shiro grabbed his wrist. “Wait, Lance,” he whispered. “I don’t think they’ll hurt us.”

When Lance hesitated, he found his gun taken by one of the creatures, lost in the crowd. All other weapons on them were taken by the creatures before they started talking to one another again. A few of them held up some rope, which Lance eyed warily. Shiro may not think the creatures were dangerous, but Lance wasn’t about to take any chances.

Then, Matt sat up. “Urg, my head…” he complained, which Lance thought was dumb because Matt was a droid.

The creatures immediately gasped, chattering between themselves again. Matt raised an eyebrow and looked around at them. “What the hell…?” he asked.

“What’s going on?” Hunk asked.

One of the creatures stepped forward, talking quickly. Matt looked surprised, but nodded and hesitantly said a few words back. The creatures cheered and then began to repeatedly bow towards the droid. “Uh, I think these guys are fine,” Matt stated.

“What are they?” Shiro asked.

“They said they’re called...Arusians?” Matt asked. “Something like that?”

“Why are they bowing?”

“Well, obviously they think I’m a god,” Matt explained, scoffing slightly.

Pidge snorted.

“Can you tell them we’re the good guys?” Lance asked.

Matt shrugged, then turned to one of the creatures and said a few words to it. After a short conversation, the creature laughed and pointed to the group. Matt’s eyes widened and he started to laugh, nodding. The creature looked pleased, then turned to the rest of the creatures and said something loudly to it.

“Wow, I think I may have accidentally screwed you guys,” Matt managed to get out between laughs.

The creatures approached the group with ropes in hand. “Matt, what did you do?” Lance nearly growled.

What Matt had apparently done was approve of the Arusians tying everyone else up to long poles and carrying them to their village. They also quickly created a throne for Matt to sit on comfortably, which they also carried all the way. Lance and Pidge had yelled threats and other swears at Matt, who ignored them with a smirk on his face, while Hunk repeatedly muttered things about not wanting to get eaten. Shiro didn’t say anything.

When they finally arrived, the Arusians holding Lance put him over a large circle of rocks that had tons of branches inside. Everyone else was leaned uncomfortably against the wall. Matt was sat down near another throne, which was most likely used by the king of the Arusians. Said king stood next to Matt and began talking to him.

“What did he say?” Lance asked, arms starting to go numb from hanging so long.

Matt let out an uncomfortable laugh. “Uh…”

“Matt!”

“Since they think I’m a god and all, uh…” Matt shot Lance a small smile. “Long story short, they’re gonna cook you.”

Hunk let out a whine. Lance sighed in irritation, watching as more of the Arusians placed more branches underneath him. Shiro looked like he expected nothing less to happen. “Matt, get them to stop!” Lance yelled.

“I’m trying…”

“Keith!” Shiro suddenly shouted.

After turning towards Shiro to see where he was looking, Lance looked the same way, seeing Keith standing there. He wasn’t dressed in the rebel camo anymore, but instead the same pastel colored robes, specifically blue and red, the rest of the Arusians were wearing, to his size. His black hair was up in a high ponytail, bangs still in his face, but Lance noticed a braid at the side of his head, going into the ponytail. It was a beautiful sight. “Keith!” Lance shouted, feeling relieved.

Keith took one look at the others and began to walk towards them, but was stopped by some of the Arusians. “But they’re my…” Keith frowned, then turned to see Matt on his throne with the king next to him. “Matt, what?”

“Hey, Keith!” Matt responded, waving.

“Tell them to let them go!” Keith ordered.

“Hey, I’ve tried,” Matt began to explain, “but I must be missing something, because they aren’t listening.”

“Matt,” Shiro spoke up, “tell them that if they don’t do as you wish, you’ll get angry and use your magic.”

Matt raised an eyebrow. “What magic? I’m a droid!”

“Just do it.”

Turning back to the king, Lance assumed Matt did as Shiro asked. When the king shook his head again, Matt opened his mouth to tell Shiro something, but didn’t get the chance before he was suddenly lifted into the air. The Arusians started screaming, and Matt started screaming at Shiro, asking him what the hell was happening and spitting out other swears. The king began pointing at the group, and other Arusians quickly ran forward and began to untie their prisoners.

Once they were all free, Matt was put back on the ground. Lance shook some feeling back into his arms just in time for Keith to run through the crowd and pull him into a crushing hug. After laughing and hugging him back, they both pulled back enough to look into each other’s eyes. Keith then leaned forward to bring Lance into a quick kiss. Shiro ran forward after that and pulled Keith into a hug of his own.

“Thanks, Matt!” he shouted up at the droid.

Matt was slumped in his chair, eyes wide. “What the _fuck_ just happened?” he seemed to ask himself.

 

~*~

 

Destroying the shield generator turned out to be a huge shit show.

Lance didn’t expect anything less, what with him leading the team, but he thought it would go a little smoother than this. After Shiro ran off during the night, he was left one man down that probably could’ve taken care of the whole fighting himself, and an emotional Keith. Lance wasn’t sure what the two talked about last night, but after trying to get answers out of the Prince, who had tears in his eyes(and Lance had never seen him like that before, not even after he saw him talk with his sister about Altea briefly), he found his arms full of softly crying Keith, and still had no answers.

The Prince seemed to be doing better, but seemed far too focused on the mission at hand than Lance had expected him to be. They managed to sneak inside the base, but before they could start setting up the explosives, more troopers ran inside, weapons raised. With no other choice, the team surrendered, and was escorted outside the base, where Lance figured at least one hundred more troops were waiting. Just as they were being escorted away from the base, things finally started swinging the rebels’ way.

“Hey!” Matt yelled from where he and Pidge had hidden earlier.

Pidge looked around the tree they were behind as well. “Hope you fuckers don’t try to come around here, ‘cause we got nothing to protect ourselves with!” they yelled.

“Pidge, don’t be rude,” Matt scolded.

“You fucking fuck looking ass fuck-”

A few troops ran towards the two droids, who disappeared behind the tree. After waiting a few moments, the troops still didn’t return. Lance quickly glanced at Hunk and Keith, who looked just as confused as he did, when suddenly a weird trumpet-like sound came from up in the trees. Then, countless Arusians jumped from where they were hiding, raising their spears and bow-and-arrows, immediately attacking the Galra troops.

Taking advantage of the confusion, Lance grabbed the first trooper he could and knocked them to the ground, taking their gun afterwards. The rest of the team followed suit, and the battle began. It was almost embarrassing how quickly many of the Galra troops feel to the Arusians, who showed no mercy. Lance and Keith ran to the door of the shield generator, which closed just before they could reach it.

“We have to get this open,” Keith yelled over the gunfire around them. “We have to set those explosives!”

Lance tried the code they’d been given, but the door stayed firmly shut. “We need Pidge!” he yelled.

After calling them, they ran through the battle with Matt close behind, crouching down and looking at the door controls. “Give me a sec,” they shouted.

Lance and Keith covered them as they worked, but one lucky shot ran through, hitting Pidge. They yelled as they stumbled back into the door, shaking as electricity ran over their body. After a moment they settled, but didn’t move. Matt crouched down next to them with a worried look, but sighed in relief after examining the damage. “They’re down for now,” he explained, giving his sibling a softer look. “Why do you always have to be so brave?”

Lance and Keith exchanged a look. Matt wasn’t built for hacking, no matter how smart he was, and he didn’t seem keen on letting go of his little sibling. Hunk was out in the battle, helping the Arusians. “Well…” Lance took a deep breath. “I guess I could mess with some shit.”

Keith nodded. “I’ll cover you,” he said, crouching down and shooting. Lance opened a panel and began to pull at some wires, hoping they would do something. After a few moments of nothing, Lance pulled a wire that resulted in a weird creaking noise.

“I think I got it…” he mumbled, pulling at the one next to it. “Got it!”

Instead of opening the door, a second one closed after it. Lance shot Keith a sheepish look, who was giving him an unammused one. Just as he went to turn around and start shooting again, a trooper shot him in the arm. Keith yelled in pain, jerking back towards Lance, who abandoned the panel to instead try to inspect Keith’s wound.

“It’s not bad…” Keith got out through gritted teeth.

Lance was about to comment on the blood on his hands, but before he could, he heard someone from behind yell, “Freeze!”

He didn’t need to turn around to know it was Galra troops. He kept eye contact with Keith, who had a mischievous look in his eyes. Lance followed his eyes when they flickered down, seeing a gun hidden in Keith’s lap. He smiled. “I love you,” he blurted. Later, he’d think about how dumb it was to announce such a thing in the middle of a battle, but he didn’t care less at the moment.

Keith smirked back. “I know,” he answered.

“Hands up!” the troopers ordered. Lance slowly raised his hands in the air. “Stand up!”

Keith shot at the two troopers as soon as Lance moved to the side. Lance gave the Prince a proud smile, looking around to see the rest of the team and Arusians chasing away the remaining troops. Then, a large tank came speeding up towards them. Lance eyed it warily. “Stay back,” he ordered Keith, keeping his arms up.

The top of the tank opened, revealing Hunk. “Look what I got!” he cheered.

Lance’s smile returned full force. “Hunk!” He lowered his arms, then frowned. “Don’t do that! It scared the shit outta me.”

Hunk didn’t seem that concerned.

“Get down here,” Lance ordered. “Keith’s hurt.”

“And it looks like you’ve destroyed Pidge,” Hunk shouted back, starting to get out of the tank.

A sudden idea came to Lance. “Wait!” he shouted at Hunk, who stopped getting out of the tank. He turned towards Keith. “I’ve got an idea.”

Hunk got back in the tank and put on a Galra troop helmet. He then contacted the troops inside the shield generator, telling them the battle was over and asking for reinforcements. After a moment, the door opened, and those inside rushed out, only to be confronted by the Arusian army. They quickly surrendered, leaving Lance, Hunk and the rest of the team to quickly get the explosives set. After that, they ran off, watching as the thing blew up.

Lance smirked. It was up to the rest of the rebels, now.

 

~*~

 

Lance was patching up Keith’s wounded arm when the Arusians began to cheer. They looked up in the sky to see the _Extinction Moon_ get destroyed. Keith’s eyes got a bit unfocused, and he stared straight ahead, at a random tree. Lance remembered their conversation just minutes earlier, when Keith told him Shiro had confessed Lady Vrocek was his mother, and that he needed to confront her and Emperor Zarkon to finally be rid of the evil in the galaxy.

“I’m sure Shiro wasn’t on that thing when it blew,” he said, finishing wrapping the bandage around Keith’s arm.

Keith shook his head. “He wasn’t. I can feel it.”

Lance eyed Keith’s soft smile warily. It had been a long time since he’d thought Keith didn’t return his feelings, but suddenly all of his insecurities came rushing back. “You love him, don’t you?” he asked, trying to give Keith a smile, but knew it didn’t reach his eyes.

“Yes,” Keith answered quickly.

Lance took a deep breath, then nodded. “Okay. Sorry.” At Keith’s confused look, Lance began to explain, “When he gets back, I won’t get in the way.”

Keith’s eyes widened in understanding. “No, no, it’s not like that at all,” he said quickly. He sat up, reaching his hands to put them on Lance’s shoulders and pull him closer. “Shiro’s my brother.”

Lance wanted to ask Keith if he meant brother in the friendship sense, or _brother_ brother. He supposed he could see the resemblance, and suddenly he had so many questions, but before he could start running his mouth Keith leaned forward to pull him into a kiss, effectively shutting him up. For a moment, Lance couldn’t think at all, and then he pulled back, breaking the kiss with a smirk on his face.

“You kissed your _brother_ to make me jealous!” Lance cheered.

Keith was not amused.

 

~*~

 

The Arusians organized a huge party. Shiro returned with the body of Lady Vrocek, who he kept calling Krolia. She still wore her scary black armor, but now her helmet was off, revealing her purple face, short purple-pink hair, and the dark marks on her cheeks. There were many more scars on her face - scars Lance would probably never know about. Shiro had her body put on a large pile of branches, provided by the Arusians, and burned it. Keith stood next to him as he did so. Lance figured he’d leave the siblings in peace.

The party wasn’t the best Lance had ever been to, but it was enough. Many of the rebels came down to Arus to celebrate. Lance ran back into Lotor, who he hugged gratefully, glad to find there was only one scratch on the _Blue Lion_. Pidge was fixed, looking like they were having fun with Matt. Keith stayed by his side much of the night, and they all talked about everything but the future or the battle or the Empire. There would still be a long way to go before things were back to the way they should be: to the way they were. Before the war.

Shiro was standing off to the side of the party, which Lance thought wouldn’t do. He and Keith walked over to him, slowly, looking to where he was. Standing across the way, seeming to enjoy the party, was what Lance could only assume were ghosts. There was Kolivan, in the same robes he had been in all that time ago. Next to him was a shorter creature Lance could only describe as a centipede-owl. And, slowly forming next to them, was a tall woman, dressed in dark brown and black robes, similar to Kolivan’s. Her hair was longer, and her scars were gone, but it was no doubt Krolia. She was smiling sweetly towards Shiro, and then at Keith, as he and Lance approached.

“Come on, Shiro,” Keith ordered, taking his brother’s arm. Shiro smiled and nodded, giving the ghosts one last glance before turning around to join the party.

“Am I going to have to get the ‘brother talk’?” Lance asked as they walked towards the rest of the group. Shiro laughed and clapped Lance’s shoulder, but it was a serious question. After all, if Lance was going to have to ask Shiro’s blessing to marry Keith, he’d want the ‘brother talk’ out of the way first.

**Author's Note:**

> Wow, this took a long time to do.
> 
> So, I decided to write this after I was trying to find star wars au fics and I COULDN'T FIND ANY?!?!?!?!?!?!? Like, seriously, guys. There's only two things of fanart I could find. Maybe I'm not looking in the right places, but pls make some for me.
> 
> The whole thing is kinda vague, especially around how Shiro and Keith are related and how Krolia turned out to be evil and stuff, so sorry about that. I may one day write a whole original series thingy but right now I do not have time for it. I honestly just wanted to write some happy Klance after the mess of season 7 that I STILL HAVEN'T FINISHED BECAUSE I LOVE SUFFERING AND HAD TO STOP HALFWAY THROUGH DUE TO NOT HAVING AMAZING INTERNET ON VACATION.
> 
> I made up a few things about Altean culture just so that I could give Keith long hair lol. Also, I'm sorry I made Sendak Jabba but I honestly couldn't think of anyone else to portray him. And I know Lotor REALLY screwed up and was a dick and I don't like him, but I thought he'd be okay at Lando. I don't know anything about starting a spaceship, so I made all that up. Also, my star wars knowledge is not the best. I love the movies and have seen them many times, but please do not yell at me for not knowing things, or if I forgot something. I apologize in advance about it.
> 
> So, yeah. Draw more star wars au fanart. Thanks for reading. This took me a whole week to finish due to the sucky internet on vacation. I probably missed a bunch of spelling and grammar mistakes. Thanks again!!!!


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